Norman Adams is Principal Cellist of Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Artistic Director of suddenlyLISTEN Music. A student of Hans Jørgen Jensen, Bernard Greenhouse, and American new music pioneer Pauline Oliveros, Norman has been a soloist with SNS, and Les Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal. He has been guest principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and has performed throughout Canada, the US, France, and the UK. His performances have also been heard across the country on CBC Radio. As an educator, Norman has been a faculty member at Acadia University, at Scotia Festival of Music, the Acadia Summer Strings Festival and has led creative workshops at String Fest at Memorial University of Newfoundland, CPA Allen High School, for the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers Association, and in schools around Nova Scotia.

In addition to his work as a classical cellist, Norman is well known as an improviser and electronic musician, playing free and creative music across North America and Europe, and at festivals from New York City to Prince George BC. Norman has collaborated with many leading artists including Joëlle Léandre, Gerry Hemingway, Eddie Prévost, Pauline Oliveros, Xavier Charles, Marilyn Crispell and Evan Parker. In 2016 Norm released 2 recordings of creative music: Arrythmia featuring hermitofthewoods on Montreal’s Endemik Label, and Collateral with Tim Crofts and Sam Shalabi.

Since 2000 Norman has been the Artistic Director and Producer of Halifax‘s suddenlyLISTEN Music, an internationally recognized presenter of improvised music, and other performance projects featuring a broad range of local, Canadian and international artists. He is also dedicated to sharing music with all people, co-leading and curating suddenlyLISTEN’s improvisation workshops for the past 11 seasons.

In 2010 Norman was awarded an Established Artist Award by the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council, for his varied work.

Norman is dedicated to the arts community, and serves on the national board of The Canadian New Music Network. He is a former board member of Symphony Nova Scotia, Strategic Arts Management and The Lieutenant Governor’s Masterworks Award and has served on juries for The Canada Council for the Arts and various Nova Scotian arts funding bodies and organizations. Norm has presented at several national new music conferences including the 2014 CNMN Forum in Calgary and the 2017 IICSI Conference in Regina. He has also served as judge at The Shean Strings Competition in Edmonton and the Nova Scotia Provincial Music Festival.

Norman makes his home in Halifax with SNS principal violist Susan Sayle, and their two teen-aged sons. Together, they spend their summers living and working on Prince Edward Island. Norm’s passion for music is equaled by his love for riding and racing bicycles, and if he’s not playing the cello, or organizing a concert, he’s probably out cycling on the roads and trails of Nova Scotia or the Island.